Ogden Bench (Knob) Ski Tour

Maximum Elevation (m): 2444
Trip Date: April 12 2025
Elevation Gain (m): 1050 (with one additional upper lap)
Round Trip Time (hr): 6
Total Trip Distance (km): 14.5
Quick ‘n Dirty Rating: Class 2 – you fall, you scrape your face (see trip report for details)
Difficulty Notes: Avalanche slopes to the upper knob, cornice exposure off Mount Ogden.
Technical Rating: OT4
GPS Track: Gaia
Map: Google Maps

It’s been a while since I’ve had a break from new landscapes that lasted this long. Since October 05 2024, I have been relegated to dozens and dozens of laps on Prairie Mountain for a variety of reasons. Are they good ones? I’m not sure to be perfectly honest. I think there was a lack of mojo for the first few months – a common occurrence at the end of summer / fall for me. Starting in January, we’ve been looking for opportunities to get out on the snow sticks and the only weekends that might have worked were spent doing other things. Finally in mid-April Wietse and I had enough. We settled on Friday, April 12 as a go-out-pretty-much-no-matter-what day and put together a list of potential routes based on various avalanche and weather conditions.

When the dust settled and the final weather and avalanche reports were in, we settled on a ski tour of the Ogden Benches above Sherbrooke Lake in Yoho National Park. Avy ratings for the area were moderate to low with a warning about any slope that hadn’t crusted up yet (i.e., N to NE). Since the benches mostly face S and SE they were a good option. Recent MIN reports from the area promised decent skiing but we should have known they were slightly exaggerated. For some reason most folks hate to admit they went skiing in sub-optimal conditions. Not me. 🙂 The weather wasn’t perfect with a snowstorm moving in mid-afternoon and cloudy conditions beforehand. You can’t always have bluebird days in the hills and we were too desperate to care about such things at this point so our plan held.

We drove a quite Trans Canada Hwy to the Divide Lodge parking lot where we parked in a mud puddle amongst at least half a dozen other vehicles. No big surprise there. MIN reports drive where people go nowadays and we were there for exactly the same reason. We weren’t early either – there wasn’t a need to leave early with such a short day ahead. After negotiating the wildlife fence we locked into the skis and followed an icy track upward. The key word here is “ice”.

The last time I hiked this trail was on route to the delightful Wolverine (Auditor) Peak back in August 2022. I remembered it was quite steep in places and this proved accurate. Unfortunately for us, it was also extremely icy – dangerously so in spots. As we tried desperately to make the skins stick and hold on a particularly steep roll, Wietse’s Pomoka skins gave way (my G3 carpets were better). His head literally bounced off the rock hard icy as he ingloriously slid spread eagle back down the trail! Although it was amusing as hell, it was also potentially trip ending. Thankfully he didn’t break his face, but he did scrape and bruise it. Funny how the crux of some trips is the part you didn’t even think about beforehand. As we delicately balanced up the icy bits on thin kicked steps, we decided that for descent we would try the trees to the left of the track. Hopefully the firm crust would hold and this would be slightly less hazardous to our health.

As we neared Sherbrooke Lake the track leveled off and as we descended the lakeshore we spotted two large groups ahead of us, crossing the ice. It didn’t take long to skin across the frozen surface and soon we were following the largest group up a series of steepening tracks through Christmas tree avalanche slopes. A snowshoer had considerately trashed the original track but the lead skier did an admirable job of breaking trail despite this. It wasn’t so much “breaking” trail as it was “kicking” trail – making some kind of track on the rock hard surface. Once again I was reminded that no matter what the latest MIN report says – BRING SKI CRAMPONS. We could have used them on both the lower track to the lake and again on this section.

As we topped out on the first bench we passed the large group and continued up a series of benches (moraines) into thickening clouds and scattered flurries. For the most part the route from here was obvious but the lack of visibility didn’t help. Rather than ascending steep slopes (full of avy debris) right under the Phantom Couloir (not visible yet), we deviated onto more mellow terrain climber’s right. When visibility pretty much vanished we found ourselves on steep terrain and no idea where it went or what we were exposed to. We decided to ski a short lap down to tree line, hoping it would clear for a second – and higher – lap. This worked beautifully.

We skied quickly down a fun dust-on-crust lap before starting back up – now following both teams again. The lead team seemed pretty confident in their route and we followed them across the steep slope we’d turned back from earlier. Now that we could see something, we realized there was a high point just above this traverse.

Views behind us to Sherbrooke Lake were stunning as we crested an upper ridge and started towards the small summit. The larger group was skiing down and we briefly chatted. Rob seemed to know a lot about the current snow pack and was cautious enough that we were glad we waited to follow his group up the steeper sections. They were originally hoping to do a traverse all the way under Mount Niles before following the “Wapta exit” back to the lake, but were not enthused about north facing slopes.

We parted ways and made the final few slides to the summit of the knob with great views back to the Phantom Couloir, Paget Peak, Mount Niles, Daly and Wolverine Peak. I could see that the views from this diminutive “peak” would be stunning on a clear day.

The mood was quickly turning grey again as we prepared for our run back to the lake. It did not disappoint! It wasn’t quite a 10/10 experience but the crust held up and the dust provided just enough to get the edges of our skis to turn. Another foot of dust and it would have been perfect but beggars can’t be choosers and this year we were definitely begging for good conditions on objectives that held our interest (we don’t like repeats unless conditions are prime).

Once again, we passed both groups at the lake before quickly exiting and starting back down the track to the parking lot. When the track steepened, we deviated to skier’s right, thankful that the crust was holding. It wasn’t perfect, but the crust continued to hold even as the snow became uncomfortably sticky lower down. 

We had to be careful not to deviate too far from the approach trail – the terrain wanted to push us further right than necessary. Eventually the snow was so crappy we bashed our way back onto the track and skied it to the parking lot. We agreed that despite less than ideal conditions, we’d seen enough to recommend this ski tour both to others and to our future selves. As we drove back in a snowstorm, we mused that perhaps we skied it a day too early – but then again you never know with this years’ conditions.